The invention relates to smart cards and, more particularly, a system for the mass customizing of microcircuit cards.
Microcircuit card means a plastic card in the thickness of which a microcircuit is housed. According to the usage of the card, it is necessary to record data issuing from a data and calculation file in the memory of a microcircuit, notably a chip with or without a microprocessor. These operations are called xe2x80x9ccustomizationxe2x80x9d of the microcircuit card and are carried out by a customizing machine. The time taken to carry out these operations is between 15 and 30 seconds per card for cards used in mobile telephones, for example.
These operations are carried out by a machine comprising several customizing lines or appliances in parallel, which each comprise a reader/encoder in which the customizing program is downloaded and which functions autonomously by means of a microprocessor.
The customized data of each card are supplied to the reader/encoder by a peripheral device via a communication bus associated with a control device.
However, in order to take account of the security aspects, it is necessary to provide additional functions, such as:
calculating so-called transportation keys for releasing the microcircuit before the customizing operations,
calculating a session key for protecting the data to be introduced into the card, and
calculating a certificate which authorises the creation of a directory or a file.
These functions entail a dialogue between each customizing appliance and a peripheral device, notably for each file or directory creation, and hence a very high exchange of data.
At the present time, these data exchanges are effected by means of a communication bus which connects each customizing appliance, station or line to a peripheral encrypting device capable of calculating the certificates for creating each file, and this for each card. However, the capacity of the bus is insufficient for Managing such a volume of data exchanges.
One aim of the present invention is therefore to produce a smart card customizing system which does not have the limitations of the systems of the prior art, by improving the data exchange flows between the customizing lines or appliances and the peripheral encrypting devices.
This aim is achieved by using an architecture for communication between the customizing appliances or lines and the peripheral devices in which on the one hand the customizing lines receive customizing data through a communication and on the other hand a data server supplies the encrypting data to the customizing lines by means of computer links, the encrypting data being supplied by peripheral encrypting devices via computer links.
This architecture makes it possible to limit the data traffic on the communication bus by allocating it to the customizing data, the encrypting data being conveyed by other computer links.
Moreover, in the prior art, each customizing station is designed to act on a data server in a predetermined fashion.
The drawback lies in the risk of a request to a data server from two or more customizing stations at the same time when another data server is available. This causes a wait in the task of the customizing station.
Another aim of the invention is therefore to optimise the response time of a data server vis-a-vis a request from a customizing station.
This aim is achieved by having recourse to an interface management means, disposed between the customizing machines and the servers, which is informed about and takes account of the availability of a server for responding as quickly as possible to the request from a customizing station.
The invention concerns a smart card customizing system characterised in that it comprises:
at least one customizing machine each equipped with at least one customizing station sending customizing data requests;
at least one customizing data server delivering customizing data;
at least one management interface connected on the one hand to at least one of the said customizing machines and on the other hand to at least one of the said data servers by a bi-directional link, the said management interface receiving the said requests, transmitting them to at least one of the said servers, receiving the corresponding response and transmitting it to the requesting customizing station,
characterised in that the said management interface is able to manage the transmission of the applications/requests or customizing data requirements to at least one of the said servers as soon as they are received and as soon as the said server is available.
The management interface coordinates the execution at the same time or periodically and for each customizing station of at least the following types of task:
monitoring the occurrence of a request,
monitoring the availability of each server,
transmitting the request to a server as soon as it is available,
receiving the data responding to the request,
transmitting the response data to the requesting customizing station as soon as they are received.
This management interface comprises:
a computer equipped with a multiway card,
each data server and each customizing station being respectively connected to the computer by a serial link on the multiway card,
a multitask real-time operating system for performing the said tasks at the same time and in real time.
Thus this system makes it possible, for a production site, to determine the necessary and sufficient data server requirements with respect to a profitability or productivity objective. In fact, in the prior art, in order to achieve the same objective, it was necessary to have excess data servers, which can be very costly.
The invention also makes it possible:
to interface all types of machines coming from different manufacturers and having different communication configurations;
to optimise to the maximum possible extent the sharing of resources external to the customizing method, namely:
data server,
enciphering xe2x80x9cblackxe2x80x9d boxes,
any other peripheral necessary for electrical customization (access control module, notably in the form of a smart card etc);
to optimise to the maximum possible extent the sharing of these resources with one or more customizing machines;
to physically separate the data server (which may be physically in a very highly protected area, and to dialogue with the data server/management interface in a protected message).
This data server/management interface is based on a real-time PC system which is xe2x80x9ccascadablexe2x80x9d, which means that several management interfaces can be connected together in a cascade by a local network. It is thus possible to increase the power of the customizing system, the operating system of a management interface being able to manage the whole directly. This ability is particularly advantageous since it confers very great flexibility on the customizing system.